“Because ye do no’ wish to marry me?” he asked solemnly.
“Because I did no’ wish to marry any man,” she corrected, and he moved back to the bed to peer down at her face with interest.
“Why?”
Evina shrugged uncomfortably. “I was married already. I did no’ like it.”
“Evi, ye were married for three days at ten years old and in name only,” he pointed out with exasperation. “What was there to dislike?”
Evina lowered her gaze to the coverings he’d pulled up over her, and began to pluck at the fur on the top one. “Me husband told me on the first day of the journey back that as his wife I had to do anything he told me to,” she said quietly. “After which he produced a worm he’d been saving in his pocket, and ordered me to eat it.”
“The little bugger,” Conran said with wonder. “What did ye do?”
“Punched him in the face,” she admitted.
Conran grinned. “Good for you.”
“No’ so good,” Evina assured him. “I was punished for it. Me da gave me a good whipping,” she added. “And I was told that aye, technically a wife had to do as her husband said. But I could refuse to eat worms and, by rights, he could no’ punish me for it until I was twelve and the wedding was consummated.”
“Hmm.” He frowned.
“Collin, me husband,” she explained, unsure he knew his name, “he apparently did no’ ken about his no’ being able to punish me until the marriage was consummated. On the second day of the journey, he hit me when I refused to eat a wormy apple.”
“What was his fascination with worms?” Conran asked with disgust.
Evina shrugged with bewilderment. It was beyond her. She’d never seen the attraction herself, but said, “’Twas no’ just worms. He drowned because he was trying to catch a fish to make me eat raw.”
“Yer father said he was fetching water,” Conran said with surprise.
Evina shook her head. “That’s what Father tells people, but in fact, Colin was standing on a log, dipping a bucket in to try to catch a fish.”
Conran grunted with disgust. “It sounds like yer husband was a spoiled brat.”
“Aye,” she muttered.
“But he was a lad, Evina,” he added quietly. “I am no’.”
“Me uncle was no’ a lad,” Evina said solemnly.
Conran stilled, and asked with confusion. “Yer uncle?”
“Gavin’s father, Garrick MacLeod,” she explained quietly. “He beat me aunt Glenna to death for displeasing him somehow.”
Conran sat back with dismay. “That is how Gavin came to be here?”
“And Donnan,” Evina murmured. “He was Garrick’s first. He’d pledged his fealty to both me uncle Garrick on accepting the position, and to me aunt Glenna when she married me uncle. But Donnan had to choose between them in the end.”
“And he chose yer aunt,” Conran murmured.
Evina shrugged. “Donnan’s own father had been free with his fists when drinking. There is nothing he hates more than a man who enacts violence against women and children. After years of suspecting me uncle’s doings, he saw him at it with the last beating and that was the final straw. He decided his loyalty was to me aunt. He bundled them up, me aunt Glenna and Gavin both, and brought them here to Maclean in hopes me father could keep them safe from me uncle. Me aunt did no’ live more than an hour after arriving here, just long enough to tell me father what had happened and to beg him to look out for Gavin and ne’er let his father get him back.”
Evina sighed. “Tildy said me aunt had wounds inside that could no’ be healed. Bleeding inside. But truly, there were enough wounds on the outside to kill her anyway. To this day I have ne’er seen anyone so battered and bruised as Aunt Glenna. Both her arms were broken, one o’ her legs and several ribs. Traveling here must have been agony fer her,” she said quietly. “Donnan said he wanted to let her heal before leaving, but she knew she would no’ survive, and was determined to get Gavin away from his father.”
“Surely yer uncle was punished?” Conran said with a frown. “Correcting a wife is allowed, but beating her to death is no’.”
“Nay,” Evina said on a sigh, and then grimaced and admitted, “Well, God punished him.”
“God?” he asked dubiously.
Evina nodded. “Father was preparing to petition the king for justice in me aunt’s murder when uncle Garrick’s brother, Tearlach, arrived at Maclean. It seems Garrick, on realizing Donnan had